Diseases and Illnesses

Summer vacation is quickly come to an end, so parents are thinking about back-to-school immunizations for the kids. Florida Department of Health (DOH) offices in South Florida are planning immunization efforts to help parents who do not take their children to family doctors, which is the best way to be vaccinated. “Vaccines have helped us wipe out diseases that used to kill our children by the thousand. But a few cases are starting to appear among unvaccinated children,” said Dr. Paula Thaqi, director of the DOH in Broward County. “Parents who want to protect their children fully should have them immunized.” Public schools open Aug. 24. Florida law says children...

Related "Diseases and Illnesses" Articles

Athletes competing in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
An AP...

A sample of mosquitoes taken in St. Charles has tested positive for West Nile virus, according to Clarke, the city's mosquito abatement vendor.
In response, Clarke was to spray the city at dusk this week, officials said in a news release.
West Nile...

A mosquito pool (or batch of mosquitoes) sampled July 16 in Gurnee has tested positive for West Nile virus. The mosquito pool is the first confirmed indicator of the disease's presence in Lake County in 2015. In 2014, two human cases of West Nile virus...

The Event: Nearly 350 supporters gathered at Chicago's Galleria Marchetti to raise awareness and funds for the inaugural Reverse Rett gala, benefiting the Rett Syndrome Research Trust. Caused by a random genetic mutation, this most physically-disabling...

A resident of a Gold Coast rehab center has died after being infected with Legionella and testing positive for Legionnaires' disease, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.
The department released a statement overnight saying it...

You have a lovely rose, an ornament to your garden. Then one summer day, you notice it has a new look: The stems are densely covered with thorns, sometimes growing so thickly that they look like fur. Stems and twigs end in thick bunches of skinny, twisted...

Verneeda White clearly remembers the moment the family learned her sister Donna Franklin had Parkinson's disease.
"We thought it was a death sentence," said the Denver woman. "We thought she'd soon be in a wheelchair and her life would...

In the smartphone age, when romantic hookups happen in a flash, the technology itself has been blamed for an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.
In May, Utah and Rhode Island health authorities made headlines by blaming hookup apps for a sharp...

The Kane County Health Department is reporting the first activity of West Nile virus found in a mosquito trap near Elburn.
The batch collected tested positive for West Nile virus, according to a Health Department press release. West Nile virus is...

Nothing compares to the love a mother has for her child. It is not lessened by heartache, illness or even death. Instead, the ripple of her love reaches out to others in an ever growing circle.
On Aug. 5, 1998, at 35 weeks, Beth Shultz delivered her...

Wisconsin-based Stella & Chewy's is recalling some of its products because of the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes.
The recall was prompted after routine testing by the Maryland Department of Agriculture confirmed Listeria monocytogenes in...

There are some funny-looking branches on my crabapple espalier. The tips of some branches have turned brown, and the brown leaves are hanging on the ends. Do you have any idea what this might be? What should I do to protect my plants?
— Andy Jackson,...

For nearly a century, insulin has been a life-saving diabetes treatment. Now scientists are testing a tantalizing question — what if pills containing the same medicine that patients inject every day could also prevent the disease?
Hayden Murphy, 13, of...

Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare has announced the opening of the Walter Payton Liver Center Outreach Clinic, located at the Edward Cancer Center, on the campus of Edward Hospital, 801 S. Washington St. in Naperville.
The Walter Payton Liver Center is a...

Measles killed a Washington woman in the spring — the first such death in the U.S. in 12 years and the first in the state in 25, health officials said Thursday.
The case wasn't related to a recent measles outbreak that started at Disneyland and triggered...

Chicago Department of Public Health leaders continue to push meningitis prevention for gay and bisexual men, launching an online app for vaccination locations and planning more free vaccines at Black Pride events during the holiday weekend.
The app...

An online medical magazine recently invited physicians to test their knowledge of cancer screening tests. The respondents undoubtedly were grateful for their anonymity, because the vast majority flunked.
In the first question, a 72-year-old man comes...

Liberian authorities on Tuesday quarantined two households after the corpse of a 17-year-old boy was found with Ebola, sparking fears this West African country could face another outbreak of the disease nearly two months after being declared...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Her name was Faith.
She arrived at the hospital sick and malnourished. At 4 years old, the little girl in Kenya weighed 4 kilos, or roughly 9 pounds, the size of a newborn baby.
She was the first patient Dr. Rachel Vreeman...